6. The Jersey Devil?
“When I was a kid, about 12 or so, my dad would always wake me up in the middle of the night to go hunting. I fucking hate hunting.
A few weeks prior to this night I saw an episode of ‘are you afraid of the dark’ about the Jersey Devil. I was on edge because I knew my dad would make me go hunting soon and we sometimes hunt in Jersey.
Sure as shit, he wakes me up one morning at like 3am and we are off to the woods in Jersey in pitch black so that he could be there and all set up before the deer come out.
I’m up in the stand, starting to calm down, when I see a little figure on the ground. It’s human, with a face I can barely make out since it’s a bit far in the distance, but I know it’s human, and it’s like 2-3 feet tall.
I’m losing my shit but don’t want to say anything because I know my dad will just tell me to suck it up.
I stare at this fucker for at least 4 hours until we get down from the stand and walk towards it to leave.
It’s a fucking lawn gnome. Miles and miles into the deep woods. There’s no roads for a looooong while and certainly no houses. How the fuck did a gnome get there? The stand we were in wasn’t even a permanent stand. It was one we out up when we got there.”
7. Reddish yellow orbs flying through the air.
“My family and I were camping on a lake in central Texas on a week with very few people around. Our spot was on the edge of the camp next to the woods and very close to the edge of the lake. We were playing Pictionary by the campfire the first night we were there when I see a light go by over the lake. I didn’t think much of it and was still focusing on the game when another one went by at the same speed following the same line. At that point I felt a little bit strange, but still wasn’t too worried about it. After that another went by and now I point it out and my dad said he noticed it as well. We walk out past the campfire and campground lights to get a better view of what these were. They continued to fly by over the lake going the same speed and staying the exact same distance from each other. They were reddish yellow orbs and there was no sound coming from them. Now my whole family is watching in awe and disbelief. After about 15 go by the last one was chased by a white ball of light that was much closer than the rest. We didn’t talk about it much after discussing what it could be, but when we got back home from the trip my mom looked it up and saw that people in a town a few miles from our campsite reported seeing the same thing exactly the way we saw it.”
—_TX_
8. That sudden sensation of being not alone.
“Went hiking with a good buddy of mine in the Carolina Mountains in the middle of winter. We went way off-trail, doing a full day’s walk from where we’d parked, so by the time we set up camp we were miles away from the nearest human. We pitch our tent and cook ourselves some food and we’re passing the whisky flask back and forth enjoying the near pitch-black night and the stillness and our little fire.
At first we felt it – that sudden sensation of being not alone. Then after a few seconds we heard something move in the darkness. We’re frozen. We hear it again, but the most terrifying thing is that this time, we realize whatever is out there, there’s more than one of them, and they’re big. My buddy and I lock eyes, too afraid to make any noise yet, and come to a silent agreement that scaring these things off is our best chance. He grabs a thick branch from the fire, and I grab one of the rocks we’d placed in a circle around it. I’m so scared I can barely breathe, but together we yell as loudly as we possibly can and charge into the darkness. And then we saw the eyes, a dozen pairs at least, staring right back at us.
We had charged a ferocious pack of mountain ponies, who didn’t react at all to the two crazy men yelling at the top of their lungs in the middle of the night, just stared back at us, totally unimpressed. Motherfucking ponies.”
9. The sound of pebbles rolling down the mountain.
“Wasn’t exactly in the woods (no trees), but it was camping in the high arctic in the middle of nowhere.
Late at night while I was in my tent I’d hear the sound of pebbles rolling down the side of the nearby slope. It was intermittent, like something was walking down the slope. You might think “so what?”, but polar bears might be a possibility. They aren’t to be messed with, being one of the nastiest predators on Earth and quite happy to hunt and eat people….
I’d get up and look outside the tent: nothing. Nothing at all. It sounds like a simple thing to do, but believe me, when you’re wondering about whether it’s a polar bear out there it is not simple to unzip a tent and stick your head out. Even with a shotgun in hand you’re wondering if you’re going to turn it in the right direction quick enough. Polar bears are stealthy and fast hunters.
Anyway, I’d go back to sleep and an hour or two later wake up again to the sound of pebbles. It was really freaking me out. It took several nights of this before I finally figured out what was going on.
In the high arctic in summer there is 24 hours of sunlight. The sun dips slightly at night but basically goes around in a circle. At a certain time of the night the sun was falling directly on the slope near the camp. The sunshine would warm it up, thawing the frost that was holding the pebbles together and they’d start cascading down the slope. The rest of the day it would be in shade, cold and quiet. So, mundane explanation, but was I ever freaked out.
Worst of it was: once I was satisfied that it was an irrelevant natural phenomena, I kept thinking “Okay, but what if a real polar bear shows up? Will I dismiss it as mere pebbles and not have the shotgun ready when it tears into my tent?” I didn’t sleep well until we moved camp.”
